TLDR - Ultimately an impersonal, undiplomatic and unresponsive 'staffing' agency with strange business practices. Candidate experience is not equally prioritized and agency does not adhere to their own commitments on feedback provision after asking you prematurely (and in some cases unnecessarily) for quite a few documents & headshot (!?).
Despite the few press releases announcing the agency's launch, no thorough reviews can be found anywhere, other than a sprinkling of Reddit and TikTok commentary that also speaks to poor candidate experiences. In a world of Anna Delvey's and Elizabeth Holmes', I am not sure if this is a legitimate agency.
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Founded by former career assistant to high profile clientele, Meghan Grimm, Clyde Staffing was created with the intention of 'identifying, developing and placing exceptional assistant candidates with top talent, while providing a peer-based community.'
The company hopes to execute this by doing the following:
-Allowing 3 weeks for the review of your application & resume
-Providing feedback to help you improve your candidacy
-Offer training tools & resources to qualified candidates, while allowing them mentorship with their assistant community.
One would think that because Meghan herself has been through the process of being staffed as a 'sidekick', her company would understand the sensitivity and importance of making the process of the job search/placement for qualified assistants, a streamlined and straight forward one, as I am sure the agency undoubtedly does for it's 'high profile clientele'.
Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Unlike other staffing agencies, Clyde follows up post resume submission with requests for certain documents prematurely, never even initiating a short screening call with the candidate of supposed interest. After resume submission, you are asked to provide a HEADSHOT, COVER LETTER, REFERENCES and a request to fill out their IN HOUSE APPLICATION, a thrown together Word doc that attempts to get addtl. info on your personal and professional background & preferences.
No one introduces themselves or signs their emails, so you don't know who you are talking to or how to address them, which further makes the process incredibly impersonal and strange.
The HEADSHOTS are an EXTREMELY bewildering ask and there is no disclosure as to why they need it or why it is relevant to the application process. This ultimately could lend itself to DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES and should be revised immediately.
No legitimate staffing agency asks for headshots. This is NOT a casting agency.
While the Clyde Staffing site does not list job opportunities like their competitors, they post opportunities on sites that aggregate entertainment roles looking to be staffed. How they ARE similar to some staffing agencies is, upon application to the role of interest, they make no mention of it, which ultimately leads you to believe that you have fallen victim to the ol' BAIT & SWITCH. Either the role has been 'staffed' or perhaps it did not exist at all.
Some tips:
-If you are overwhelmed by applicant volume, you should be thoughtfully parsing through applications thoughtfully to organize them in a way to do proper outreach and followup if in fact interested. Candidates don't want to do any unnecessary homework' of providing addtl documentation if you do not plan on moving forward with them as an an applicant. You should be able to tell by the initial resume submission whether the candidate is a good fit for your business.
-Do not say you will provide addtl feedback in a month's time if that is not your plan.
-If a candidate is respectfully following up with you, there is a diplomatic way of letting them know that you need them to be patient, etc., rather than being unresponsive. It shouldn't need to be said, but it's unprofessional.
All in all, perhaps the agency does not have the clientele to keep up with the influx of candidates seeking employment opportunities. Who knows? However, looking for new employment is already sometimes such a demoralizing experience...why add to that.? There is definite room for growth. read more